Challenge Updates, 2014, A New Year of Gaming & Loki beat me to the 1K.

I hope everyone had a wicked Christmas and New Year.
The break is over and it is back to the grindstone of the painting table.
Considering that my Mrs banned me from the paint table over the holidays, I did manage to sneak a bit of time here and there.
I am currently in 3rd spot again in the challenge.
My good buddy and nemesis Andy (Loki) beat me to the 1K  race.
So I can expect a year of ribbing and piss taking, although he still has to beat me in the overall challenge.
I am hoping that 2014 will be a new milestone in my gaming, with new projects and era's to spice up what was becoming a little tedius over the last few years.
Moving to Hail Caesar and Black powder has really opened the gaming up again for me.
I finally came to realise that I had spent many years catering for people that did not really share my love for gaming.
Due to this, gaming became more of a chore than an enjoyable evening.
I decided enough was enough and spoke to Andy about a new direction and he was as passionate about this as I was.
Glenn has also followed us and this just leaves Karl to make the effort.
I myself like Andy, have had a year of health issues, although not as bad as Andy.
I have days when I feel fine and days when I cannot move.
This has impacted on my output and the time I can paint.
I am also sculpting more again.
I am on new Meds that are playing havok with me at the moment, but at least I can get to paint a bit more.
A good start to the new year I think.
My aims for the next few weeks are to finish the WotR, complete the Vikings for gaming and maybe get the Crusaders done.
I will not be taking on any more large Commissions.
This year will be for me and my gaming.

Challenge entries for the Christmas period.

Henry Holland, Duke of Exeter's Retinue Bowmen.
All 28mm Perry's.

Two Commands for my recently purchased 15mm ECW armies.
The two armies were originally based for DBR.
They have been re-based for Pike & Shotte, but lacked Battallia commands.
More to come.

Charles I CinC and a cavalry command stand for the Royalists.

Crusaders Military Orders.
Hospitaller Order for HC with a unit of Mounted Knights, Foot Knights and a Sub unit of both Archers and Crossbows.

Templar Order for HC with a unit of Mounted Knights, Foot Knights and a Sub unit of both Archers and Crossbows.
Both sets are mostly Strelets with the odd Italeri, all 1/72 (20mm)

A decent start to the challenge with a lot more to come.

28mm War of the Roses, Duke of Exeter's Billmen.

I know it's been a while since my last post, but with all this Christmas malarky, I have been a tad busy.
More WotR Billmen.
This time it's Exeter's Billmen.
Once again these are the lovely 28mm Perry plastic's.
I am coming to the end of the WotR painting.
I will be taking some pics when all completed and arrayed for battle.

I was going to start Exeter's Retinue bow this week, but with the challenge looming and busy with work and Christmas, I decided to do some prepping instead.
I did pop a few pics of the Crusader prepping on Facebook.
I now have a load of Crusaders and bowmen ready to start for the challenge.
The vikings I get on Christmas day and cannot wait to get my hands on those lil beauties.

I have had plenty of comments on here about my Jacobites.
Well!!
They will be for sale very soon as I am replacing the 28mm collection with a 15mm collection.
Anybody interested, please let me know.

Brushes at the ready everyone, the Challenge start date grows ever nearer.

Thursdays Gaming Night, SYW, "The Prussians at the Gates"

Just a quick post about last Thursday's Gaming Session.
With Karl having a break due to illness and Glenn busy with work, it was left to myself and Andy to roll a few dice.
We decided on another "Black Powder" SYW foray.
Once again, I blindly led the Russians against the might of Fredrick's Prussians.
This time we fought a meeting engagement as the low command values of the Russians make them difficult to get moving.
The lines advanced slowly and when in position, let rip with volley after volley at each other.

The Russians prepare to Advance

Let see if they start moving

Russian Cavalry on the left flank

The Prussians arrayed for battle

The lines meet

The Lines in the centre meet and all hell breaks loose.
Casualties are high on both sides as the volleyed each other, but no one gives ground.

Back and forth the line go

The Prussians push the Russian centre, but it holds its ground.
Artillery on both sides takes a terrible toll.
A Russian push with the cavalry on the left forces the Prussians to divert their reserve brigade to counter the threat.
The Russian infantry on the right flank, advance steadily towards the Prussian heavy cavalry.
Volley fire disorders the Prussian Cuirassiers, who cannot get out of the way of repeated steady volleys.
The Disordered Cuirassiers are destroyed and break as the Russian Right flank advances.

Decisive action on the right flank.

With the Cuirassiers gone, the two remaining Prussian Dragoons fall back before the advancing Russian Right.
The Russian foray on the left had failed but did manage to keep the Prussian reserve occupied.
With the Right flank lost to the advancing Fresh Russian Infantry and Heavy Cavalry Brigades.
The Left flank tied up with the remainder of the Russian Dragoons and Hussars pressuring the Prussian Reserve.
The Centre for both was weakened, but the Prussians now lacking the punch to break through the steady Russian defence.
Andy now called it as he would have to make a fighting retreat with the remainder of the army.
No heroic final charges here, Andy played in the true spirit of the period and did what any commander would do when he knew the army was licked.
He retreated to fight another day, and they will be another day.
Superb little game.
"Black powder is great for this period, the linear tactics of the day can shine with this rule set, when played in the right spirit of course.
We had the lot, Good and Bad dice rolls (my morale saves were shocking in the early game).
Tactically, the game plays brilliantly.
Oh!, this is also a first win for the Russians.
Although the Idiot, Leadership (6) CinC had nothing to do with it.

28mm War of the Roses, "Henry Holland" Duke of Exeter. Shire Levy Bow.

Another addition to the WotR collection.
This time it's the "Duke of Exeter's" turn, starting with his Shire Bowmen.
All 28mm Perry plastics with a few head swaps from my bits box to reflect their non professional status.
I decided to place Exeter's, wheat ear retinue badge on a white patch.
This was placed on some of the figures to show their allegiance to their Lord and to make them more recognizable on the battlefield.
The wheat ear is also present on the livery standard.

Next up will be Exeter's Retinue Billmen.

28mm War of the Roses, "Richard" Duke of Gloucester Retinue Bowmen.

Another addition to the WotR collection.
This time it's the future Richard III's, Duke of Gloucester Retinue Bowmen.
All 28mm Perry Miniatures plastics.
48 of the lil buggers in total and each one an individual.
This is the largest unit in the collection (at the moment).

I still have all the move trays to sort out and will be having a word with Martin at Warbases for his help with this collection.

28mm War of the Roses, Duke of Clarence Billmen.

More WotR.
This time the Duke of Clarence's Bills.
28mm Perry Miniatures plastics.

All the Bull liveries are handpainted.
The livery banner is my own design (Paintshop).
I was thinking of adding a texture to the all the livery flags, I may still at a later date.

Painted to my Wargame's standard.

My Gaming buddy Glenn has some things Napoleonics on ebay and asked me to give him a plug on here.
here is a link to the first item he has listed, http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/121202095645?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649
There are many items, please have a look if you are looking for some Westphalians and some GW 40K stuff.
Fiasco was great, I'll cover that in my next post along with myself and Loki's SYW bashing tomorrow.

Thursday Night's SYW Gaming Mayhem.

Last evenings gaming session was another foray into the "BP" SYW.
My Prussian force led by Fredrick himself against a larger French force, jointly commanded by Andy & Karl.
The Prussians were to play a holding action to deny the French access to the road leading to wherever in Prussia.
I was thinking of doing a battle report but to be honest, I got a bit to caught up in the game.
I did take some piccies though.
Anyways, to cut a long story short, the French got hammered.
The Prussians held and drove the French from the field.
A few eye candy pics of a very beautiful looking game.

All the French appeared on the right side of the table, oops!

The Prussians with only one entry point were slow to arrive.

The French traffic jam

It was going to take the French time to get into position

The Prussian battle line started to take shape

Prussian battleline nearly ready as the French start to deploy.

Beautiful looking French forming the line

French infantry with cavalry forming the French left flank

The Prussian right flank was slow in moving into position

The Prussian right was also struggling to get into position as the French extended their line.
Although vulnerable at this time, the French were unable to exploit this.
I was lucky to have a Prussian Infantry brigade in reserve if needed and luckily I didn't need them to swing over to the right.

Prussians are ready

Oops!. 

One thing we learned, don't charge guns frontally with cavalry.
The cavalry were shaken with closing fire and the resulting break test was a beautiful double one from Andy.
With the loss of the cavalry to the guns and the other French cavalry getting crumped by the countercharging Prussian Cuirassiers, who made a sweeping advance to crump another.
The French cavalry on the Right flank was effectively knackered.
Karl having not learned from the earlier episode of charging guns frontally, repeated the process on the right.

Oops! again

Once again the French cavalry charged and once again were destroyed by closing fire  from the target battery.

Beautiful French Dragoons from Karls collection. Painted by me over ten years ago 

More of Karls lovely French (Le Guard)

Le Grenadiers and a French Battery

Andy pointing out where the game ended with the breaking of the Irish

The French centre had collapsed, the French CinC was mortally wounded and carried from the field.
All was lost, three of the five French Brigades were broken.
This resulted in a broken army, game over.
The Prussians lost one unit.
I think the problem for the French was that they never got into position and I think Andy will agree on this.
The Prussians were ready first and the French attacked in a piecemeal fashion.
The waste of the French cavalry on a couple of artillery targets and a tussle with the Cuirassiers could have been avoided.
The fact is the the Prussians formed their linear line first and beat off sporadic French attacks.
Had the French time and if they had formed their own solid line and advanced together, things could have been very different.
 

The Big HOLE in the French centre as the French start to retire.

I love gaming and I love "Black Powder"
When played in the spirit and flavour of the period, it really works and gives a very enjoyable game.
Now I know some people say BP is a bit too abstract when covering such a large period in history.
I myself think this is it's strong point.
The tweaks the supplements give add to the period spirit, but at the end of the day, you must play in the spirit of the period.
As a commander in BP, you face all the same challenges that a real commander would face and things don't always go to plan.
A bit like warfare really.

28mm AW Miniatures French Indian War British Light Infantry.

The last of my current batch of AW Miniatures FiW figures.
This is the British Light Infantry blister pack of 6 figures.
These are a tad on the large size, but still very nice indeed.
I painted each figure in a slight variation as they are very much in campaign wear.
All have the jockey cap, a cut down tricorne that was far more practical.
Most have the woodland hatchet and the hip bag.
The cartridge box is on the front as it should be and none have the bayonet frog as they discarded their bayonets, but one pose (3 figures) have the bayonet attached.
I myself would remove this and I will when I obtain some of my own.
I love the simplistic look of these, they all have the minimum of kit and all records show this was the case.
I had a look through my Osprey "Wolfes Army" for painting information and inspiration.
I did the long gaiters in the marching brown as they more often fought in these.
A crouching pose would be nice as would a light infantry officer.

These will be going with Andy tonight along with the Rangers force, for basing.

All these should be available to browse over at the Derby/Donnington Show.

Thats my current batch of AW, FiW completed.
They do look better in the flesh as I take useless pictures.

Now to carry on with the WotR

28mm AW Miniatures Woodland Indians and the Full Warparty with Rangers.

Finished at last.
The Indians now completed for the "Muskets & Tomahawks" British Rangers 200pt Force.
Here we also have the full force in all it's glory.
2 x 7 man Rangers units and a 6 man Indians unit.
The only thing missing is the officer and I will add him when AW send me one.
I really like these and sorry for the indoor pics (Pi**ing it down outside)

I really like the figure with the musket in the air and the tomahawk.

There is some really nice little bits of detail on these that you don't see until you paint them.

The Full 200pt Force with Rogers Rangers on the left and Gorhams Rangers on the right, with the Injuns centre.

I am really gonna have to get some of these for myself...

Basing to be completed by Loki at "Terra Firma Studio's".

On my Table at the moment are the AW British Light Infantry and a huge WotR Bow retinue.
Tomorrows game is the Jacobite Rebellion.
The first encounter from the Boots for the Prince campaign in the Last Argument of Kings book.
Myself and Andy with the Jacobites and Karl with the Hanoverians.
We are missing Glenn this week as he is recovering from an operation.
Get well soon Glenn..